An Investigation into the Development of Innovation Education as a New Subject in Secondary School Education

ABSTRACT This paper describes a research project from the University of Iceland, Faculty of Pedagogy and Education which focuses on how Innovation Education emerged in Iceland as a new subject and how the subject has developed; what makes the subject special; and what factors, internal and external, have influenced its dissemination. The paper will include an overview of the data collection and analysis methods and an overview of the findings. Diverse research methods have been utilised during this research. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used to gather data from students, teachers, head teachers, pioneers in Innovation Education, entrepreneurs and ministry officials. Documentation of various kinds was also consulted, including reports, laws, curriculum, teaching materials and products from Innovation Education lessons. The research indicates in conclusion that curriculum formulation and implementation is a complex interplay of connected factors that are not completely predictable. It seems of more use to view changes within education systems as an organic rather than a linear progression, more comparable to biological evolution than to the production process of a factory. It is important to recognise the fundamental factors, inherent in the hidden curriculum, and verify their powers to influence the development of the subject. KEYWORDS: innovation education, curriculum formulation, Icelandic National Curriculum. INTRODUCTION Innovation Education under the name Innovation and Practical Use of Knowledge was introduced into the Icelandic National Curriculum for compulsory schools in 1999, where it is defined by the curriculum writers as a "school subject" but is not allocated any direct time in the recommended guidelines for subjects. Innovation Education (IE) has pedagogical values, in the context of both general education and as part of the Icelandic National Curriculum (1999). IE is based on conceptual work which involves searching for needs and problems in the student's environment and finding appropriate solutions or applying and developing known solutions (Denton & Thorsteinsson 2003). The context of Innovation Education may be either: * an invention which may be considered completely new; * an improvement of an existing product or system; or * a diffusion of an existing innovation into a new application The main emphasis of IE is developing students' ideation skills (Gunnarsdottir, 2001). By strengthening individuals' ideation in a general educational context they are meant to be better able to deal with their world and take an active part in society. The IE process is a simple way to teach ideation skills. The flowchart shows the fundamental steps in the innovation process as it has been promoted. Ideation skills are used at all stages of the IE innovation process (see Figure 1). Students learn through the innovation process within the overall IE pedagogical framework which is managed by the teacher: 1. Identifying needs in one's own environment 2. Brainstorming 3. Finding the initial concept 4. Ideation drawings or modeling to develop the technical solution 5. Making a description of the solution in addition to the drawing 6. Presentation. Ideation, therefore, is at the core of the IE pedagogical framework. The IE process is iterative with an overlying direction leading from 'finding needs' to 'presentation of solutions'. Innovation has to do with the usefulness of ideas and/or how they can be implemented as solutions to problems encountered in daily life. In Innovation Education, it is assumed that everyone can be creative and the emphasis is on enhancing creative activities of students through direct connections to everyday life. Educational innovations based on this kind of approach have struggled against the strong underlying factors inherent in the institutional culture of education. …